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March 31 • Volume 36, No. 23
Next edition April 14
L’édition de cette semaine à l’intérieur...
Businesses hoping for post-restriction bounce back By Fred Sherwin The Orléans Star
(Left to right) Devyn, Travis and Terry McFadden hold up the Bradley Cup, 74 years after three other McFaddens won the trophy in 1948. See story page 11. FRED SHERWIN PHOTO
Despite the fact that the World Health Organization has yet to declare the COVID-19 pandemic officially over, many local businesses are already reporting business as usual since the province lifted all COVID-19 restrictions on March 21. Others, however, are experiencing a more sluggish post-restriction bounce back with customers expressing a general unease over the measures being lifted. “I’m not sure we’ll ever get back to normal,” says Joe’s Barbershop owner Joe Valenti. The Place d’Orléans barbershop was able to weather the pandemic storm despite being closed for nearly 90 days during 2020 and having to operate at 50 per cent capacity for most of the rest of the time. The cost of the pandemic can be measured in the number of barbers Valenti had to let go
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over the past 24 months. Prior to the pandemic he employed 20 barbers. Today, he is down to just 10. Valenti is confident his customers will come back over time, but many of his regulars are apprehensive about coming into the barbershop to get their hair cut now that the need for vaccine passports and face masks have been removed. “A lot of people are still nervous about coming in and that’s understandable,” says Valenti, who plans to take a wait and see approach himself before coming back to work owing to the fact that he is among the high risk groups for catching COVID. To help allay people’s fears, all of Valenti’s barbers must still wear their face masks while in the shop. Little Turkish Village owner Sunil Kurichh CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
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